Viewing entries tagged
learning
In a last ditch effort to save any real chance at a love life, I’ve resorted to picking up guys on the subway. Most recently I’ve decided to let tall, dark-eyed men know whenever they accidentally drop something out of their pockets. Pockets which they awkwardly never have. [Excerpt]
I found out the hard way, receiving awards and impressive remarks often becomes an addiction, an enslavement of the mind. The more you do, the more you feel the need to do, to stay ahead of others and your past self. And when you're not doing, you feel worthless to the world. It's one thing to be build a resume to get into college or to get a good job, it's another thing to believe that resume gives you self-worth. We live as social profiles unable or unwilling to admit that Saturday night we did nothing. Looking back, tennis was trying to free me from those future expectations. [Excerpt]
I’d already been to hell twice in my life by my 18th birthday. My first trip was near the end of high school, back when gas prices averaged a buck thirty-five and Kelly Clarkson was busy being crowned the first American Idol. These factors coupled together would eventually equal my escape from childhood: my first car on the wide open road, me inside belting ballads.
But not before I first paid one hell of a visit to American Legion Boys State in The Sticks, Tennessee. If inside my car was a place I could reinvent myself, then Boys State was the place where I could try just being ‘one of the guys’. And that’s all I secretly wanted for my sixteen-year-old wretched self. [Excerpt]
There’s something about the quiet stillness on Sunday nights that forces us to look within. If we are wanting to reach a higher potential, we must make room for better than the present. We must sink into the uncomfortable stillness and let it open up doors. It’s easy to get too busy to ever feel this stillness, to ever feel the discomfort that comes from wrestling with our dreams, and that’s exactly why we must. Living in the middle of New York City, I’ll attest to the fact that the world’s noise is unending. Too often we give up on hearing our inner voice and follow everyone else’s instead. [Excerpt]
Three-hundred and sixty five days - and I’d like to underline each one of them. One year in many ways feels like one month, feels like a decade. It’s been nothing like the expectations I had laid out in my head, but much more. Coming home makes for good reflecting time away from the city. The past one year has been a rollercoaster of courage, fear, faith, loneliness, meditation, gratitude, joy and pure freedom embedded within new experiences, friends, job, home, and a new mindset. [Excerpt]
The fear didn't just immediately melt away when I made up my mind to go on this adventure. No, first fear tried to bring all its friends, every single one of my insecurities, along on this vacation. [Excerpt]
